The 19th-century Russian giant Anton Rubinstein, regarded as the only pianist worthy of mention in the same breath as Liszt, was a composer said to be too prolific for his own good. Shaw once lampooned someone else’s concert by saying the music “was not of the slightest interest, being pure Rubinstein from beginning to end”. Leslie Howard, who recorded all of Liszt’s piano music, is now on Rubinstein’s case. The Piano Quartet in F was originally a quintet for piano and wind, and Howard argues that it was enriched in the process of arrangement. Either way, the slightly later C major Quartet, Op 66, is a more richly knitted work, and the way the string players rally around the oversized piano writing seems just right. url.ie/4qdb